Like William and Kate, prince chooses the ski slopes to ‘out’ his relationship

Prince Harry is media savvy. His recent rant about press intrusion into his privacy shows he knows everything he does in public is monitored.

That is why his very public hug with girlfriend Cressida Bonas on the slopes in Verbier is a clear message of intent.

As he holds her close in a warm embrace watched by a handful of paparazzi, he is telling the world: “She’s my girl, and I don’t care who knows.”

Close sources say his romance with society girl Ms Bonas, who celebrated her 24th birthday with him in Switzerland, grew more serious while he was away serving with the Army Air Corps in Afghanistan. Harry apparently contacted her whenever he could when on duty — much more than he did his family. That alone suggests the prince, 28, is smitten.

Dance student Ms Bonas ticks all the right boxes. From a society family, she is beautiful, fun and intelligent. She was educated privately, at £30,000-a-year Stowe School, before going on to graduate from Leeds University, and she is the half-sister of Prince William’s so called former crush, actress and model Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe.

Ms Bonas’s parents are four-times married and divorced Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, a Sixties “It girl” and mother of five, and Old Harrovian businessman Jeffrey Bonas.

Cressie — as she is known to friends — is listed at 27 on The Tatler List of “all the people who matter”.

She was first linked to Harry last summer, when they were seen together after the premiere of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises, and their romance appears to have weathered the storm of his naked partying in Las Vegas.

Ms Bonas will have to be a strong character. The paparazzi attention is bound to intensify and I am sure Harry — like William before him with Kate Middleton — will do everything to protect her from it. His brother’s serious romance with Kate was outed on the ski slopes and it is perhaps significant that Harry has chosen to do the same.

Harry is a decent chap, the party prince media image distorting his serious side. After a life of turmoil and tragedy, high jinx and danger, let’s hope he has found a girl he can be happy with. By their smiles, it certainly looks like he has.

Robert Jobson is the author of Harry’s War: The True Story of the Soldier Prince, published by John Blake.